Last week, we published a poem on our web site by
Lance Landall entitled "Longing". The poem begins:

I’m longing for a Christian, Lord,
who’s more than one by name,
Yes, one who truly is one,
not just one who makes that claim.
I’m longing for a Christian,
who’s a Christian through and through,
Not just one who thinks they are,
but one, who truly knows You.

This poem spoke to our hearts about all the
people who write to us with similar feelings and concerns.

At the same time, the haunting music of a 1961
Pete Seeger song, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", kept flowing through my
mind.

Pete Seeger wrote these words and music as a
protest against the Vietnam War, and it was sung by Joan Baez at an anti-Iraq
War protest in Washington DC in 2005, but it wasn't just the anti-war aspect
that kept going around in my mind; it was one of Jesus' Beatitude blessings
(Matthew 5:9):

9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called
sons [and daughters] of God.

There's a lot more to this verse than making
peace with our fellow human beings; for the true children of God seek to make
peace with the whole of God's creation (humans, other animals, and the world in
which we all live).

I kept thinking of the words to Pete Seeger's
song in a different way:

Where have all the Christians gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the Christians gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the Christians gone?
Satan's plucked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

So many people claim to be Christians, and so
many claim to be born again; but when with hope, we look, we find little fruit
to testify to their claim.

Just so we don't make any mistakes about what
this fruit looks like, let's look at how Paul described it in Galatians 5:22-25:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no
law.

24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the
flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

And there's that word "peace" again!

Paul ties the true intent of what he and Jesus
are saying in Romans 8:18-25:

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for
the revealing of the sons [and daughters] of God.

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its
own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope

21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its
slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers
the pains of childbirth together until now.

23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the
first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting
eagerly for our adoption as sons [and daughters], the redemption of our body.

24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is
not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees?

25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance
we wait eagerly for it.

Most people look at this passage as some end time
prophecy that we are to eagerly wait for, but it's not just that; it's for the
here and now, too.

It is here that we keep asking, where have all
the Christians gone?

Most of the people who claim to be Christians may
be waiting, even eagerly, for this time to arrive, but they are not persevering.

For a person to have perseverance, they must be
persistent in a course of action, and the vast majority of claiming Christians
are not.

They are following the destructive nature of the
devil, who seems to be empowered by the spilling of blood, whether from humans
or from other animals.

Some people may try to justify war with our
fellow human beings by saying, "but look at what they've done to us!"

But they cannot use this excuse with the war they
are advocating and waging against billons of farmed animals and the environment.

And this is why we keep wondering, where have all
the Christians gone?

True Christians would be so filled with the fruit
of the Spirit that it would just overflow into everything they did and said.

Our only hope of freeing our precious Earth from
its present corruption is to be loving peacemakers, who have the patience and
perseverance to keep their hearts and souls focused on the problems, and work
diligently to end them.

These true Christians have and show a kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that is totally reflective
of Jesus.

So, if they don't exhibit these spiritual
character traits, we know where all these Christians have gone; they're on the
broad ways that lead to destruction; the same ways that have corrupted God's
creation.

If we go back in time only six years to the 11
September 2001 terrorist attack on the USA, and think of an appropriate
Christian response, we would have spent only a small fraction of the warring
money and probably no additional loss of life by securing our borders, and
working diplomatically to end world terror.

Violence only produces more violence, and the
proof of this is on our television sets every day.

So, where have all the Christians gone?

They definitely are not working on peaceful ways
of solving our human problems.

And what about our environment and global
warming?

Where have all the Christians gone?

One of the most destructive greenhouse gasses is
methane, and according to the United Nations, 18% of all greenhouse gasses are
in the form of methane coming from the animal agriculture industry.

There are more greenhouse gasses produced by
animal agriculture than from all forms of transportation put together.

Why aren't these claiming Christians helping to
end this problem by changing their diet?

It's because they want their pound of flesh, and
are indifferent to the pain and suffering they are causing, which proves that
they are not truly loving, they are not making peace with creation, they lack
patience, kindness, goodness, and gentleness, and the self-control not to
continue in their destructive ways.

And the joy that they have comes from the
suffering of others, which is definitely not a Christian fruit of the Spirit.

What happened to crucifying the flesh with its
passions and desires?

It is not a part of the spirit of these claiming
Christians.

This is where all the Christians have gone; when
will they ever learn?